One of the truly special things about America is that we were able to cast off a tyrant without creating another one. We bucked the odds. The common end is usually ugly for revolutions, social movements, and really any effort that has people uniting en masse to right a wrong.

The French Revolution threw off a horrible monarchy, but ended with a dictator. The Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro took down an authoritarian government—and promptly replaced it with an authoritarian government. The American left has learned from history. They now co-opt every legitimate movement and use it as a weapon to achieve political power.

One of the easy ways to tell the difference between a legitimate movement and a grift is that legitimate movements quickly purge the false actors from their midst. Grifts welcome the false actors and purge the critics.

Look no further than this Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fiasco and the damage it has done to the Me Too movement. Kavanaugh spent the last three weeks fending off the flimsiest accusations of sexual assault in history. Christine Blasey Ford’s story unraveled by the day, and the other “accusations” were too absurd to mention outside the offices of NBC.

Democrat senators assumed they could take public outcry over women assaulted and use it to scuttle a Republican SCOTUS nominee. That in itself is bad enough. But it is even worse when you consider the loudest voices of the Me Too movement have been almost completely silent about what Senate Democrats did with their movement.

Allowing the left to use your movement as a hammer to beat on the right is a quick way to water down your message and ensure the public tunes out to your cause. What happens the next time a woman tries to tell her story of assault? I’ll tell you what happens. Because of this sham of a nomination process, it will be that much harder for her to make herself believed.

The biggest and most entrenched grift in American society is what the left has done to the civil rights movement. Long gone are the days when Republicans had to overcome Democrat opposition to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Long gone are the days when great men like Martin Luther King Jr. marched 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery so he could raise national awareness about the plight of black voters.

Today, “civil rights” is burning down Ferguson, Missouri after a justified police shooting. Or it’s millionaire athletes who live like kings talking about how hard black men have it—at least, black men who haven’t been elected president of the United States. The truth is that President Lyndon Johnson recognized an opportunity for the Democrat Party to take over and use the civil rights movement for their own purposes. Given the fact that 80-90 percent of black people now vote Democrat, it is hard to say he failed in his quest.

Of all the modern grifts, the women’s rights charade is probably the most embarrassing. What began as the quest to give women the right to vote back in the early 1920s has now turned into pretending women belong in the Marine Corps infantry. Groups like Women’s March attach themselves to any leftist cause and pretend they’re fighting for women.

Feminist activists long ago stopped acting like their movement was about achieving equality. Today, it is a movement to dominate, emasculate, and shame men for the crime of being men. Look no further than Hillary Clinton’s disastrous run at the presidency. Time after time we had to hear about some “glass ceiling.” The former first lady, senator, and secretary of state really expected some of this country to believe we had to make her president to prove how pro-women we were.

Hillary is far from the only one. Serena Williams is the most famous female athlete in the world, worth $180 million, and sees her face on commercials during Monday night football. Yet we still have to hear her whine about “women’s rights” as if this is Saudi Arabia. Women living in America in 2018 have a higher standard of living than any women who ever lived. They also have the entire “men-are-stupid” Hollywood entertainment industry on their sides. Ladies, you’ve won. You have equality. Any more whining is an attempt to seize power.

Remember the Parkland High School shooting? That should have been a time for all Americans to unite and mourn the loss of our children, a time to search for ways to keep them safe. But we are no longer afforded the luxury of mourning anymore. The leftists were gun-grabbing and boycotting conservative advertisers before the bodies were cold. What could have been a national conversation about school safety was immediately infected by the left.

Although much less prevalent, we have our bad actors on the right as well. You can argue day and night about the merits of the infamous “Never Trump” movement from the 2016 GOP presidential primary. But there is little argument left to defend the daily embarrassing conduct by those who are still clinging to that label.

What was once supposedly a movement to “defend conservative principles” has become a Democrat-aiding con job. They’re even going to run a third-party candidate in 2020 who won’t seriously compete for a single Electoral College vote, but will help them swindle little old ladies out of their retirement funds. “Principled” Jeff Flake will be crisscrossing the country, boring people to death, and living high on the hog.

Avoid movements. It is human nature to seek safety and security in groups, but in the end you will end up getting played for a sucker. How do I know? Because it happens to every single movement in America. It begins with your real, genuine passion about an issue. It ends with Jim Jones handing you a glass of Kool-Aid.

Jesse is the host of "The Jesse Kelly Show" on KPRC 950 in Houston. Jesse is a Marine Corps combat veteran and former congressional candidate in Arizona. Jesse resides in the Houston area with his wife and two sons.